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Maryland
Vicki Schultz leaving UB Law to lead Maryland Legal Aid | Maryland Daily Record
Vicki Schultz, an affiliate dean on the College of Baltimore Faculty of Regulation, will exchange Wilhelm H. Joseph Jr. as Maryland Authorized Support’s government director Might 31, MLA introduced Thursday.
“Maryland Authorized Support is a crucial group with a protracted, storied historical past” of serving to low-income Marylanders in civil issues, Schultz stated Thursday.
“I consider there’s at all times extra that may be accomplished to develop entry to justice,” she added. “I stay up for closing that (justice) hole and shifting us nearer to the objective of equal justice below the legislation.”
Schultz, who has been the legislation college’s affiliate dean for administration since 2012, will succeed Joseph, who retires after having been chief administrator, lobbyist, fundraiser and cheerleader for the Baltimore-based authorized help group for greater than 1 / 4 century.
MLA reported that in Joseph’s 26-year tenure, the group’s annual income rose from about $9 million to greater than $33 million.
“His presence, ardour and savvy have served Maryland Authorized Support for a few years and that will probably be his enduring legacy,” Schultz stated.
Joseph’s service with MLA, nonetheless, was not with out controversy.
He survived an inside mud up two years in the past when greater than 130 former staffers referred to as on him to resign after 4 managerial attorneys had been fired, allegedly for questioning back-to-work orders throughout the pandemic. The previous staffers stated the firings had been symptomatic of senior administration’s callous disregard for MLA staff who are inclined to the civil litigation wants of an indigent clientele.
Joseph stated on the time that the previous staffers’ considerations about MLA’s administration had been coming from “individuals who don’t have the information.” As for the firings, Joseph stated, “We don’t touch upon personnel issues.”
MLA will stay targeted on “our No. 1 core worth: purchasers first” amid the pandemic, he added.
Joseph didn’t instantly reply Thursday to a request for touch upon his tenure and plans for the long run.
In a information launch saying his pending retirement, Joseph said he’s “wishing a most fruitful and rewarding tenure for Ms. Schultz as she embarks on this honorable journey of main Maryland Authorized Support.”
Joseph will stay with MLA till Might 31 to assist within the transition, the group said.
Schultz’s new position will mark her return to MLA, the place she began her authorized profession within the Nineties dealing with housing and client circumstances for purchasers she recalled had been “keen to face up for justice” regardless of their lack of economic sources.
“My Authorized Support purchasers are nonetheless part of me,” Schultz stated. “I carry their tales, their braveness.”
For the previous yr, Schultz has chaired Maryland Lawyer Normal Brian E. Frosh’s Entry to Counsel in Evictions Process Drive.
She beforehand served as deputy assistant U.S. legal professional normal for civil rights below then-Assistant U.S. Lawyer Normal Tom Perez throughout the Obama administration. She earlier served as senior adviser to Perez when he was Maryland’s labor secretary.
Earlier than becoming a member of state service, Schultz labored in group growth and directed a statewide mission offering authorized providers to nonprofits.
She stated will probably be “bittersweet” to go away the College of Baltimore Faculty of Regulation, which can also be her alma mater.
“It’s been a pleasure to satisfy and get to know the following technology of legal professionals and leaders,” Schultz stated. “I’ve nothing however hope for the long run.”
Authorized affairs reporter Madeleine O’Neill contributed to this story.
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Maryland
The rich and controversial history of Maryland’s clown ministers
We are fools for Christ’s sake.
So believed the apostle Paul when he penned a letter to the Corinthian church. And so, too, believed Maryland’s pioneering clown ministry.
This niche style of Christian outreach is as outrageous as it is earnest, and traces some of its roots back to Columbia. It’s perhaps a legacy that James Rouse never imagined when he founded the Howard County town, with its distinctive urban plan, efficient use of land and commitment to diversity. Rouse included a series of interfaith centers intended to bring people of different beliefs under one roof. The model inspired one local pastor at Abiding Savior Lutheran Church to pursue his own experiment blending liturgy with laughter.
These days, Rev. Floyd Shaffer is remembered by some as the “clown father” of modern Christian clowning. Though liturgical clowning already had a history in Europe, Shaffer spent his time in Columbia in the 1970s dabbling in clown ministry and eventually became known as a leader of the movement in the United States. He died three years ago, his wife Marlene Shaffer confirmed.
Even though the whimsical ministry’s heyday was in the 1980s and ’90s, some Christians continue to answer the call to clown. And the practice has captivated new audiences on TikTok and YouTube.
Earlier this year, the Columbia Maryland Archives put together an online exhibit about the town’s nondenominational clown ministry, called Faith and Fantasy, which Shaffer founded in 1974. Archivist Erin Berry said staffers were inspired after stumbling across a popular YouTube channel’s episode on Christian clowning.
Shaffer’s idea for a clown ministry came to him in 1964 on a beach in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The pastor was in town for a Bible study and leafing through some books when he stumbled across the etymology of the word clown. He connected it with Jesus’ command to be a servant.
That same year, Lutheran church leaders were getting creative with clowns — and it wasn’t going over well.
The National Lutheran Council produced the short film “Parable,” which depicted Jesus as a white-faced clown and the world as a circus.
The film’s 1964 debut at the New York World’s Fair roiled event organizers, some of whom resigned in protest. One “disgruntled minister threatened to riddle the screen with shotgun holes if the film was shown,” the Library of Congress noted when it announced that it had selected “Parable” for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2012.
Six years later, Shaffer debuted as a clown minister for the opening day of Abiding Savior’s vacation Bible school, according to a news article preserved in Columbia’s archives.
“I don’t think that something that’s so controversial — I don’t know what other word to use — as clowning ministry could flourish in another place other than Columbia,” Berry said. “You could just try what you wanted to try.”
Other leaders within Columbia’s interfaith centers encouraged Shaffer to keep at it, said 86-year-old Marge Goethe. Her husband, Rev. Jerry Goethe, the pastor for Kittamaqundi Community Church, suggested to Shaffer that he teach a class on clown ministry. Together, the two men designed a seven-week course that covered theology, the history of clowning, skits and games to encourage playfulness.
Many local residents, including Marge Goethe, enrolled in the classes, embraced clown ministry and set out to visit children’s hospitals, retirement homes and domestic violence shelters. She learned how to silently deliver sermons with gestures and humor, but never mockery. Goethe used lipstick to draw a red circle — a symbol of the liturgical clown — on her cheek.
Goethe developed her clown persona and named him Harry, after a man she knew as a child who lived on the streets. He was a reminder that she could either be the kind of person who brushed him off or helped him out.
Howard County’s clown ministry eventually grew to include as many as 300 clowns, The Baltimore Sun reported in 1994. Members of the Faith and Fantasy ministry went on to teach clown ministry around the country and internationally.
Not every audience loved the routine.
During a worship service at a Virginia college’s youth convention, Goethe and other clown ministers offered to draw the mark of the clown on people’s cheeks.
“What is that, the mark of the devil?” one man asked.
Goethe couldn’t reply while she was in character.
“All I had to do was accept what he was feeling at the time and hope it changed at some point,” Goethe said.
Goethe still attends Kittamaqundi services and performs clown ministry. When people ask her about the decades she spent cheering up strangers, she worries she won’t find the right words to explain how rich clown ministry turned out to be.
“I did more good for people being silent,” Goethe said.
Shaffer eventually moved to Ohio and authored several books with titles such as “If I Were A Clown” and “Clown Ministry.” He produced instructional videos on clown ministry that lately have found a rapt audience on the internet.
Jen Bryant realized she had a personal connection with clown ministry while putting together an episode on the subject for her YouTube channel, Fundie Fridays, which features cultural commentary on aspects of fundamentalist Christianity in the United States. The Missouri resident’s grandfather, a Catholic, performed for a time as a clown minister under the name “George-o.”
Every community seems to have its subcultures, Bryant said, and she found that was also true for clowns. There are classical clowns like Joseph Grimaldi, a Regency-era entertainer who introduced the white face makeup. There are dark clowns like Juggalos, a nickname for fans of the hip-hop group Insane Clown Posse. And there are scary clowns like Pennywise, the shapeshifting antagonist in Stephen King’s 1986 horror novel “It.”
At first, Christian clowns sounded like a meme to Bryant. The full story, she said, turned out to be “way more interesting.”
Bryant and her husband James Bryant ordered copies of Shaffer’s books and collected a variety of research on clown ministry for their episode, which posted in April. The hourlong segment earned an “overwhelmingly positive” response from their audience, many of whom are in the midst of deconstructing their faith and understanding of Christianity, Bryant said.
“Everyone just thought this was just the most pleasant little novelty,” James Bryant said.
Maybe Christian clowns are even the original deconstructors.
“They’re people who went, ‘faith wasn’t working exactly how we wanted it to, so we broke it down and changed it,’” he said. “It worked. It has a legacy.”
Appearing in a video on Kittamaqundi’s YouTube page, Shaffer said clown ministry gives people a new way to live out and enjoy theology, “instead of being so glum and gloomy and solemn, as much of the church has become.”
Many Bible stories defy rational thought and that’s sort of the point, Floyd said in the video.
Scripture, Floyd noted, often suggests that God has a sense of humor.
Maryland
Calmer weather and milder temperatures in store for Maryland on Christmas
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Maryland
Where To Celebrate New Year’s Eve 2024 In Annapolis
ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, MD — New Year’s Eve will feature fireworks over the Annapolis Harbor, six Arundel Mills celebrations at Maryland Live! Casino & Hotel and the annual Charm City Countdown party at Hilton Baltimore BWI Airport Hotel.
Here is a look at some events happening in Anne Arundel County. Click on any event to learn more.
Annapolis
The transition from one year to the next is often marked by the singing of “Auld Lang Syne,” a Scottish folk song whose title roughly translates to “days gone by,” according to Encyclopedia Britannica and History.com.
The tradition of New Year’s resolutions dates back 8,000 years to ancient Babylonians, who made promises to return borrowed items and repay debts at the beginning of the new year, which was in mid-March when they planted their crops.
According to legend, if people kept their word, the pagan gods would grant them favor in the coming year. However, if they broke their promises, they would lose favor with the gods.
Many secular New Year’s resolutions focus on imagining new, improved versions of ourselves.
The failure rate of New Year’s resolutions is about 80 percent, according to U.S. News & World Report. There are many reasons, but a big one is they’re made out of remorse — for gaining weight, for example — and aren’t accompanied by a shift in attitude or a plan for coping with the stress and discomfort that comes with changing a habit or condition.
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